1891
March 25
(No. 4)
bottom at once either burrowed into the mud or
lay perfectly still, their spotted shells often matching
the pebble spangled bottom sufficiently well to
make them rather inconspicuous.
  In the soft mud along this brook we saw a track
which puzzled me. The hind feet were as large as
those of a large Cat and similar in shape with
long claws. The fore feet were much smaller. The
hind feet usually struck the ground [well?] together,
the fore feet nearly together and ten or twelve
inches in advance but in places this order was
not followed. The creature evidently moved by
irregular jumps of from two to four feet. It
certainly was not a Cat and I could only think
of an Otter. If an Otter it must have been a
small one. No other track was registered along
this brook save the very old one of a musk rat*[muskrat].
  We next struck back through a matted growth
of young birches and poplars coming out near 
the rope walk without having seen a bird of
any kind. Near the rope walk there was a 
single Song Sparrow skulking in bushes on the
edge of the weed field. Turning back into 
the birches, after beating the meadow where I shot
the Short eared Owl last December, we came
on a pile of Partridge dung that would have 
filled a pint measure. It was rather old and
somewhat mouldy but as we were looking at it
we heard the unmistakable chittering of a
Partridge and the next instant the bird, a 
fine old cock, started within ten yards of us